Annexationism among Cubans

A group of Cuban intellectuals gather at Cuban TV’s Round Table (a
misnomer) to analyze (once again) Donald Trump’s alteration of America’s
policies towards the Cuban Government. They insist on accusing US
leadership of harboring annexationist intentions, albeit only cultural
—the preferred form today among many Cubans, although those in the
Government stress those of an economic nature.

However, annexationist sentiment is somewhat broader than that suggested
by the panelists. Actually, there have always been Cubans who have not
believed that we can govern ourselves, as they harbor ambivalent
feelings. On the one hand, the best is expected from the US. We are
almost as close to the country as Mexico, and many believe that Cuba has
more of a right, and is better prepared, to be the 51st state than
Puerto Rico.

On the other hand, the US is the menacing power that, it is said, wishes
to seize the Island towards some supposedly sinister ends.

However, the annexationist tendency is not entirely the people’s fault,
or that of Cuba’s neighbors to the North. A country whose rulers do not
permit dissension unleashes pent-up feelings that, as they cannot be
processed through democratic channels, give rise to extreme positions
that in no way benefit the nation.

The Cuban Government is responsible for young people seeing migration to
the United States as the only answer to their problems; among other
reasons, because once they finish school they face the prospect of
low-paid and unattractive jobs, and the future of their children is even
less promising.

More than annexationism, the phenomena that can be seen in the Cuban
people are frustration, skepticism, and a waning will to fight. The
dictatorship crushed the people’s determination to rebel, but at the
same time annihilated its creative drive. The few who dare to fight
choose the path they find best. At times ways they are paths that may
seem wayward, but, in the current situation of uncertainty, who can say
what should be done?

The Government wields all its weapons against dissidents: scheming,
disqualifications, false accusations, threats, arrests, kidnapping,
confiscations of mobile phones and computers, eavesdropping on telephone
conversations, isolation campaigns between neighbors, prohibitions on
travel abroad or even to other provinces, and everything else that
occurs to them. Now they are trying to discredit those dissidents who
met with Trump, as if the rest mattered to them.

When annexationism peaked in the 19th century, Cuba was subject to a
colonial tyranny delegitimized by the winds of freedom blowing in
America. In the half century of the Republic after independence, we did
not develop enough, due to rulers who were still stuck in the past, two
of them devolving into dictators.

As a collateral consequence, Cubans have always looked expectantly at
their powerful neighbor. This Revolution, with its absurd Communist
leaders belonging to another era, has managed to push Cubans back to the
nineteenth century, and see American aid, or even annexation, as valid
solutions in response to the tyranny to which they are subjected, in no
way different from that perpetrated by the Spanish Crown.

The reaction to Trump’s speech among us reflects the satisfaction of the
downtrodden, who are denied the chance to raise their voices against
their despots, after seeing a leader publicly denounced. We ought not
exaggerate. This is not annexationism, it is just reveling.

The more the Cuban Government refuses to change all that must be
changed, the more isolated it will be, and more and, as more and more
people see annexation as an actual possibility, the undeniable
disintegration Cuba is undergoing will be spotlighted.

It is not the unlikely prospect of annexationism that threatens the
country. Rather, it is real Communism, imposed without tolerating
dissension, which spawns unproductiveness, emigration, increased
prostitution, administrative corruption, common crime, apathy and
deception. Parodying the poet, “in short: evil.” The destruction of the
country by blows from the hammer and sickle.